Category: Holidays

May 1 is also known as May Day in some parts of the world. This holiday has been celebrated for thousands of years; it likely started out as a pagan celebration of the spring, fertility and the new year (this was before the current calendar came to be). Now, children and adults in various parts […]

Happy New Year! Is one of your new year’s resolutions to get organized? Many of us have that same resolution year after year… I know I do! One of the problems is that, especially when you have kids, nothing is constant. Clothes are outgrown, the kids’ activities change season to season, carpool arrangements change each […]

When I was a kid, I remember looking forward to New Year’s Eve: It was the one night of the year that my brothers and I could stay up all night long (well, until midnight), eating junk food and watching movies until finally the ball would drop in Times Square, indicating the end of the […]

I know, New Year’s Day is still a couple of weeks away and you’re probably in the midst of celebrating other holidays at the moment. Still, this is a great time to start to think back over the previous year and decide what changes you might want to make after the ball drops, welcoming in […]

December is bursting with festivities, and with those festivities are often alcoholic beverages. It’s fine for you to have a few drinks, of course, and drinking moderately can help set a good example for your children of appropriate and responsible alcohol usage. Of course, every year we hear of injuries and fatalities caused by drinking […]

We’ve been talking over the past few weeks about ways to make the upcoming holiday season more affordable. Most of us need to watch our holiday budgets, and starting to think about gifts early can make a big difference in your credit card statements come January! Many times, the extra time and energy you invest […]

Our family enjoys hosting foreign exchange students, and over the years, we’ve been able to experience some of the interesting observances and celebrations that other cultures participate in. One of our family favorites is one that a German student brought to our home several years ago: St. Nicholas Day.
In Germany, children place one or two […]

The holidays are quickly approaching, but if you’re like anything like me, you spend the first half of December wishing that you’d started your holiday shopping earlier! With many of us feeling the economic pinch, you might not be in the position to spend a lot of money on Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. Homemade gifts […]

I grew up with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, so I was exposed to all sorts of holiday traditions. Although we celebrated Christmas at home, we’d go to my paternal grandmother’s house every December to observe Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights. We’d gather at some point during the celebration to light candles […]

The search for the perfect Christmas tree is a holiday season rite of passage for many families. You want to love your tree – after all, you’ll most likely be looking at it for several weeks, and for many people, the tree is the center point of the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations, so […]